Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Denver Post
GRAND JUNCTION — When Robert Dewey's cellphone jangles in his pocket, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" is the ringtone.
Dewey
said it's just one way he has to remind himself that he really is free
after spending 16 years in prison proclaiming his innocence for a
gruesome rape and murder that put him there.
"It was like being
in a roomful of people, like, I am here and I'm yelling and you can't
hear me," Dewey told a classroom of criminal justice students Monday
evening at Colorado Mesa University.
His visit marked the first
time Dewey, 51, has spoken publicly about his ordeal in the town where
he was convicted in 1996 and exonerated in April.
Dewey
told the students — many of whom were still in diapers when he went to
prison — that his main message is that they should "look beyond the
cover of any book and read a few chapters."
Dewey is heavily
tattooed. His hair hangs below his waist. He is back to wearing the
biker leathers that were the costume of his preprison existence. And he
hasn't toned down the tough-guy talk.
"Robert's the same. He
hasn't changed a bit," said Steve Laiche, one of the attorneys who
originally represented Dewey and who continued to work on Dewey's
defense while he was in prison.
Laiche also teaches the criminal
justice class where Dewey spoke in a rambling, profanity- and
humor-laced question-and-answer session that ended with one student
handing him $20, others giving him hugs and handshakes, and some posing
for cellphone photos with him.
"How does it feel to be a celebrity," one student asked and got only a chuckle in response.
Dewey
was anything but a celebrity in 1994 when 19-year-old Jacie Taylor was
murdered. Her body was found in her Palisade apartment in a
neighborhood that was the epicenter of a growing methamphetamine
subculture.
Dewey was identified as a suspect based on the
changing stories of other meth users and on his suspicious and furtive
behavior. Blood on the Texaco shirt he often wore at the time was
identified as possibly being Taylor's based on early DNA tests.
Dewey candidly told the students Monday that the blood on the shirt was his — a result of shooting up drugs.
That
was proven to be true, and Dewey was exonerated after much more
sophisticated blood testing also showed DNA samples in Taylor's
apartment belonged to a man now serving a 40-year sentence for the
murder of another woman in Fort Collins. Douglas Thames, who also lived
near Taylor, is going to be tried for her murder.
Since shortly
after he was released, Dewey has been living in Colorado Springs with a
girlfriend he knew before he went to prison and her 8-year-old son. He
had back surgery a month ago to remove pins and screws that a prison
surgeon used to treat injured discs. A still ruddy scar slices through a
dragon tattoo on his back. He lives on $698 a month in disability
payments.
His focus has been on rebuilding an old Harley-Davidson
motorcycle because it was imaginary motorcycles that got him through
prison. He spent much of his time behind bars fantasizing about riding.
"I would picture myself walking down a sidewalk lined with bikes, and I'd pick one and ride away," he said.
Dewey
said he's not sure what he wants to do with his life now. Decisions
come hard because he had few opportunities in prison to make choices. He
"blows circuits" on something as simple as picking food from a menu,
much less choosing a career after he received no training in prison
because of his "lifer" status.
Dewey may be telling his story next to the Colorado legislature. Several legislators are working on a measure that
would give compensation to the wrongly convicted who are exonerated
based on new DNA testing. There are 23 states that offer such
compensation. Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957, nlofholm@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nlofholm

How to help

Private donations have been helping Robert Dewey — who was exonerated
of a rape and murder conviction after 16 years in prison — to live and
to finish building his dream motorcycle. Contributions can be sent in
care of his Denver attorney: Danyel Joffe, 1626 Washington St., Denver,
CO, 80203.